Valve's Steam Machines finally revealed

The Valve has been opened – the PC gaming gurus behind Steam have revealed their first batch of Steam Machine gaming PCs.

"Each one of these represents a different take on the right solution for their customers in the living room," says Valve co-founder Gabe Newell. "There's a lot of variation from the low to the high end, both in the devices we see here and in the product lines that people are going to have. That's one of the strengths that the PC has, that customers can get the PC strengths that they want, while software developers can be guaranteed a stable platform."

Building up Steam

A range of partners have developed the Steam Machines – PCs that follow guidelines and meet standards laid down by Valve, and run its SteamOS operating system.

They range from the dinky to the bulky, and take in everything from heavily designed machines that wouldn't look out of place next to an Xbox One or PS4 under your telly, to black boxes that look like servers.

Of course, it's what's inside that counts.

Alternate, Alienware and CyberPowerPC

CyberpowerPC Steam Machine

Alienware Steam Machine

Alternate Steam Machine

Alternate's Steam Machine packs in an Intel Core i5 4570, 4GB of RAM, a Gigabyte GTX 760 GPU and a 1TB SSD, with a retail price of US$1340.

Alienware is keeping its cards close to its chest as far as specs and price are concerned, but design-wise it's the standout success of the line-up – a gorgeous, angular box with subtle glowing details.

CyberpowerPC's device starts at US$500, with an AMD/Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB RAM and either an AMD Radeon R9 270 or Nvidia GTX 760 graphics card, and 500GB of storage.

Falcon Northwest's Tiki comes in a perfectly hideous airbrushed case, and is the most expensive of the lot – starting at US$1800 and going all the way up to US$6000, depending on how you configure it. The spec list includes a Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan graphics card, up to 6TB storage and between 8 and 16GB RAM.

iBuypower, Materiel.net and Next

iBuyPower Steam Machine

Materiel.net Steam Machine

Next Steam Machine

iBuypower has conjured up an Xbox One-style case that sells for an Xbox One-style price – US$500 and up. Inside, you get an Intel or AMD quad-core processor, 8GB RAM, Radeon GCN Graphics and 500GB storage.

Origin PC, Scan, Webhallen and Zotac

Scan Steam Machine

Origin PC Steam Machine

Webhallen Steam Machine

Zotac Steam Machine

Origin PC's Chronos comes in a variety of different configurations, starting with a Core i7 4770K, up to 32GB RAM, 2 6GB Nvidia Geforce GTX Titans and up to 14TB storage. The price has yet to be confirmed, but expect it to be astronomical.

Scan's NC10 is one of the most interesting designs of the launch lineup, with an unusual stretched-out configuration wrapped in a metal shell. The prototype on display came with some unsightly Inside, you get a Core i3 processor, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M graphics and 500GB storage, with a price tag of US$1090.

Webhallen's big and bulky US$1500 beast has specs to match its size – and price. You get a Core i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, GTX 780 graphics and a 1TB SSHD.

Finally, there's the Zotac Steam Box – which loses points for design, being a rebadged Z Box. Specs have yet to be confirmed, but expect it to clock in at US$600.